[CAUT] Reading low humidity (was seasonal SB failure)

[Fred Sturm]

On 3/3/06 3:52 PM, "Greg Newell" <gnewell@ameritech.net> wrote:

>        I gain from this that wood reacts very
> quickly on the intake and very slowly on the
> release. Since this is the case I still wonder
> how useful or accurate your readings and
> subsequent assumptions from RH are. You are very
> specific in your second paragraph about what you
> expect to face when dealing with your concert
> grand. While I'm sure that will be useful
> information to you I wonder how this relates to
> the real world environment in which we find many
> of our private customers pianos. I do some
> concert work but not on the scale or frequency
> with which you obviously do. This is a CAUT forum
> and your info can be quite useful in that realm.
> I guess I was just hoping to port it over to the rest of the world too.
> 
> best,
> Greg
Hi Greg,
    I gave a very specific example to show very specific practicality. In
private homes, I rarely have nearly as much intimate knowledge of conditions
from day to day, or even from month to month. Still, I record RH every
service, so over time I am able to track it to a limited extent, with
seasonal fluctuations if they tune other than the same time every year. This
allows me to advise them on how to achieve better tuning stability if that
is an issue, and to warn them of possible dangers of soundboard cracks and
the like if conditions warrant. It also allows me to explain in advance what
they might expect seasonally, for instance if they had the piano tuned at
the height of RH in late summer/early fall.
    Over time, I have learned what a number of specific models of pianos do
seasonally in terms of tuning change, and expect and anticipate those
changes. It makes my life feel a little less random, I suppose. Changes are
accentuated in the university environment, with rapid air exchange HVAC
systems. When I first started at my university, in August at the peak of RH,
I was amazed at how sharp my predecessor had kept the pianos. Then I was
dismayed at how flat they had got by October. That was 20 years ago. I have
been obsessing about RH ever since, simply because it is the one factor I
can read and track, which tells me where I was and where I can expect to be
tomorrow. I still have a lot to learn about it.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico